ORAS UU Zapdos Offense Peaked 7

[IHateBadPlayers]

Introduction
I saw that Zapdos had just moved down into the UU tier and decided I wanted to make a team with it as it is one of if not my favorite Pokemon. I decided to make the team more offensive because offense fits my playstyle best. I have wanted to make an RMT for a long time but I never made a good enough team to warrant one, so I decided now was as good of a time as any.

Team Development

Zapdos @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice] [Grass]
- Heat Wave

This is what my team was built around. I saw potential in offensive LO Zapdos so I decided to build around that. It acts as a pivot with Volt Switch for initiative and it is my main way of dealing with mons like Suicune and Blastoise. It's also my main switch in to grass types such as Shaymin that would run my team otherwise. HP Ice is chosen to hit Dragons as they are the biggest threats to my teams because I don't have a good Draco switch in.

Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Taunt
- Roost

Hydreigon was put on the team due to my deep hatred for stall. As such, I elected to use the stallbreaker set with Taunt and Roost to annoy things such as the ever-so-illusive Blissey and Porygon 2. It was also added because it can deal out massive amounts of damage using its powerful STABs and break many walls weakening them to be picked off by mons such as Zapdos later in the game. Even though this makes my stall matchup much easier, this is the most expendable mon on my team.

Blastoise-Mega @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 56 HP / 252 SpA / 200 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse

Blastoise was chosen as my team's Rapid Spinner. I wanted Blastoise because it was the best fit mega for my team as it has decent offensive presence as well as defensive abilities that my team lacks. I also was in desperate need of an ice resist and this filled in that hole too. It has Ice Beam over Aura Sphere to read Grass types that want to try and switch in on me. The EV spread is to outspeed uninvested base 100s and adamant Murderkrow which it OHKOs with an Ice Beam.

Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock Ice Beam
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Toxic Spikes

Nidoqueen was selected to be my Stealth Rock setter. I liked it over other rockers because it maintains offensive presence, adds another fighting resist, and gave me access to a fairy check which my team desperately needed. Having an electric immunity is also really nice given that electric eats my team and opposing Volt Switch is annoying to deal with. I have Toxic Spikes over a coverage move to further wear down offensive and defensive checks with poison for teams that are susceptible to them.

Entei @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge
- Bulldoze

Entei is here as my team lacked any physical presence what-so-ever and it was also in need of a strong wallbreaker and I thought who better than the destroyer Entei. It is able to deal out massive amounts of damage to things such as Florges which wall my team pretty hard without it. It is also nice to have Extreme Speed to pick off weakened mons who have set up on me. Bulldoze is taken over Flare Blitz because my team is slow so lowering speed is nice.

Mienshao @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Stone Edge

Meinshao was chosen to be a cleaner with it's high speed stat being aided with a choice scarf. This is my answer to fast mons such as Mega Sceptile or Mega Swampert in rain. High Jump Miss Kick is an extremely powerful move capable of finishing off a lot of mons after just a small amount of prior damage. It also acts as another pivot forming a nice volt-turn core with Zapdos. If it isn't killing itself with HJK misses it is usually finishing games.

Slurpuff @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Return
- Play Rough
- Drain Punch

Thanks to a fantastic suggestion from Lord Wallace and LittleRunnerXC, I decided to add Slurpuff to the team. Slurpuff's job is to provide a wincon and a dragon switch in because the original version of the team got completely destroyed by dragons and had to rely on hitting HJKs to win every game. As such, Slurpuff is able to scare opposing Salamence not to click Outrage or opposing Hydreigon not to bother clicking Draco because if they click those move not only may they lose their dragon, but I can use Belly Drum and proceed to sweep their entire team.

Cobalion @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat
- Volt Switch
- Iron Head

The second change I made in terms of Pokemon was also suggested by LittleRunnerXC, and it was the addition of Cobalion. Cobalion was a fantastic addition to the team because it allowed for me to take pressure off of Nidoqueen as I no longer needed Stealth Rock on it, allowing for the addition of Ice Beam. Also, Slurpuff is not a perfect check to dragons, as some run fairy coverage. That is where Cobalion comes in, takes a hit and dishes out a big blow to the opposing team with one of its STABs. The addition of another pivot also helps me with always being in with the mon that I need at the time.


Threat List

Now that the dragons have been taken care of, there is a new threat of fast psychic types. These mons can come in, outspeed my entire team, and hit anything very hard (hydreigon is not a check due to dazzling gleam/moonblast and being outsped.) As is the case, they have become the number 1 threat.

Stall has fun with my team. Sure, I have Taunt Hydreigon, but it only goes so far especially if the opposing stall mons have Toxic. Cobalion beats Blissey and Umbreon but the problem there is that those mons can damage me on switch in and switch out when I come in. Overall, it is possible for the team to play around stall, but incredibly difficult and extremely annoying.


Closing Notes

This is my first RMT so sorry if it isn't that good. This is also the first good team I made but I would greatly appreciate all suggestions made to reduce my threatlist. By the way, I'm sorry there are like 3 importable boxes and 2 shoutout boxes, I don't know how to fix it :[.

Importable

Zapdos @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Heat Wave

Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Taunt
- Roost

Blastoise-Mega @ Blastoisinite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 56 HP / 252 SpA / 200 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Rapid Spin
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse

Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Toxic Spikes

Slurpuff @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Return
- Play Rough
- Drain Punch

Cobalion @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat
- Volt Switch
- Iron Head

Proof of Peak

Shoutouts

Shoutouts to Hard2DaCore for helping me test the team and for getting to the peak you see below with it. Also shoutouts to I'm On Cloud 9 for helping me test this RMT and telling me what to add/change to make it better. Also 2 more shoutouts to Lord Wallace and LittleRunnerXC for both of your very helpful rates which suggested the changes that I now use on the team.

 

[Lord Wallace]

Hey man this is a pretty interesting team, I just have one suggestion to potentially patch up the threats to your team that you mentioned.

As I see it, you need something that isn't necessarily a switch in to offensive Dragon types but rather a Pokemon that can punish Pokemon like Hydreigon and special Salamence, particularly opposing Hydreigon.

My suggestion is to replace Mienshao as your late game sweeper with Belly Drum Slurpuff. Mienshao is a decent check to the likes of Hydreigon and Kyurem, but Slurpuff goes even further and punishes Draco kills by coming in and potentially sweeping the entire opposing team thanks to Unburden.
In addition to punishing Dragons, Slurpuff can also set up on fast, frail threats that can't necessarily do enough damage to prevent the BD (see Aerodactyl), and it punishes Hydreigon's checks, which tends to be fat, passive Fairies. In return, Hydra kills Doublade, Chandelure, and other counters to Slurpuff.
Between Hydreigon, Blastoise (spin support, Fire type check), and Zapdos (Volt-switch can be used to bring Slur in safely), your team actually synergizes quite well with BD Slurpuff and you patch up the weaknesses you mentioned in your threat list without losing offensive momentum. You do lose a lot of initial speed on the team but it's pretty bulky anyway and you have strong priority with Entei, so you should be ok.

Slurpuff set

Hide

Slurpuff @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Return
- Play Rough
- Drain Punch

Jolly at +2 outspeeds Jolly Pert in the rain and Scarf Mienshao, Return is for Nidos and just a strong accurate attack, even HP to activate Sitrus upon Drumming up.

That's all I have, hope I helped!

 

[IHateBadPlayers]

Hey man this is a pretty interesting team, I just have one suggestion to potentially patch up the threats to your team that you mentioned.

As I see it, you need something that isn't necessarily a switch in to offensive Dragon types but rather a Pokemon that can punish Pokemon like Hydreigon and special Salamence, particularly opposing Hydreigon.

My suggestion is to replace Mienshao as your late game sweeper with Belly Drum Slurpuff. Mienshao is a decent check to the likes of Hydreigon and Kyurem, but Slurpuff goes even further and punishes Draco kills by coming in and potentially sweeping the entire opposing team thanks to Unburden.
In addition to punishing Dragons, Slurpuff can also set up on fast, frail threats that can't necessarily do enough damage to prevent the BD (see Aerodactyl), and it punishes Hydreigon's checks, which tends to be fat, passive Fairies. In return, Hydra kills Doublade, Chandelure, and other counters to Slurpuff.
Between Hydreigon, Blastoise (spin support, Fire type check), and Zapdos (Volt-switch can be used to bring Slur in safely), your team actually synergizes quite well with BD Slurpuff and you patch up the weaknesses you mentioned in your threat list without losing offensive momentum. You do lose a lot of initial speed on the team but it's pretty bulky anyway and you have strong priority with Entei, so you should be ok.

Slurpuff set

Hide

Slurpuff @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 228 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Return
- Play Rough
- Drain Punch

Jolly at +2 outspeeds Jolly Pert in the rain and Scarf Mienshao, Return is for Nidos and just a strong accurate attack, even HP to activate Sitrus upon Drumming up.

That's all I have, hope I helped!

Hello Wallace,

I really like your suggestion and I will definitely give it a shot thank you! I'll let you know how it works!

 

[feen]

Hey bud cool team you have here. I have a few points to discuss and how to deal with your threats.

First off, you have said you're weak to Florges, and your option is to pray for 2HKO with Sacred Fire. I think you should run Flare Blitz over Bulldoze on Entei because that allows more raw power and can be used to decimate walls to its fullest.

252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Empoleon: 330-388 (88.7 - 104.3%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 271-319 (75.2 - 88.6%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

With Florges out of the way, I would like to suggest Whimsicott over Mienshao as another backup to deal with Florges, as well as switching into Draco Meteors and pivoting out easily. With Encore you can force a lot of switches as well, and pivot to a wallbreaker to pressure the foe even more. Furthermore, with Entei and Blastoise already in your team, these two Pokemon can create a Fire-Water-Grass core which is an effective core as they can deal with each other's weaknesses. Beware of Fire Blast and Ice Beam however, so therefore you need to predict what they will use and go to either Blastoise or Whimsicott to deal with. With Whimsicott being on your team, the opponent will use Fire Blast more likely and this would create some mind games and you can take them to your advantage. If they're non-choiced, you can just go to Blastoise, see the Life Orb recoil and switch to Whimsicott to tank the Draco Meteor and Encore/KO/U-Turn out of it easily. Having a Whimsicott also lets you check Fighting-types since they're annoying as hell to face with your team as well.

Whimsicott

Whimsicott @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 132 Def / 128 Spe
Timid Nature
- Giga Drain
- Moonblast
- Encore
- U-turn

The Speed EVs are to outspeed Salamence so that you can hit it hard with Moonblast

 

[LRXC]

I really like the team! The team concept reminds me of Omfugas Porygon-2 Offense, and about how you build around a really good mon in the tier, that can go offensive or defensive!

I think the whole team concept is really cool, and I think your playstyle is something like Bulky Offense, and I am going to make some suggestions to fit that playstyle better. I see you have many functional cores including Zapdos and Hydreigon and the infamous Mega-Blastoise Nidoqueen core. Those are the mons I am going to suggest you keep, but I have some changes for your team. I most definetly agree with Lord Wallace in that you really do need a draco switch in, as you are very weak to dragon type moves. You also have kind of a fighting weakness, and slurpuff can help with that as well, as well as serving as a partial knock off counter. Slurpuff also synergizes really well on your team, but Lord Wallace explained why well enough =)So I will also suggest Slurpuff > Mienshao.

Slurpuff set

Slurpuff @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 228 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Play Rough
- Drain Punch
- Return

I am also going to suggest another change, as your team still seems weak to dragons, as many carry fairy type coverage including Iron Tail Salamence, Poison Jab Haxorus, and even Flash Cannon Hydreigon, which though not common, can get rid of Slurpuff. And once Slurpuff is gone, they can start dropping dracos and your team will be whittled down. So other than that I am going to reccomend a change for Entei. I am recommending Coballion > Entei Coballion provides some much needed speed on your team, as your entei can be outsped by many things because of the fact it has to run adamant over jolly, which means it is outsped by some of your threats such as Salamence and other base 100's and above. Coballion in my opinion is a perfect fit on your team, as you still need a reliable florges check, and a check to physical walls, and yes bulky steel types. Even though this seems like a Bulky Offensive team, your team is pretty slow, and can be outpaced easily, I feel that Coballion can add some much needed speed, and another dragon resist, brings lots of offensive pressure, and forms a Dragon, Fairy, Steel core with Hydreigon and Slurpuff. It could run leftovers or shuca berry.I have 2 possible sets you could run, but some other changes would be made as well =)

Coballion set(s)

Cobalion @ Shuca Berry or Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat
- Volt Switch
- Iron Head

You could use this set and take the pressure off of nidoqueen to set up all of the hazards. This would allow Nidoqueen to have another coverage move, which would be useful for your team. This also gives more oppourtunities for slurpuff to come in because of volt switch. While both of its stabs hit your counters hard, including Snorlax, Blissey, and especially florges.

OR

Cobalion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge

This set is the more offensive one, that can put lots of offnsive pressure. You could scratch SD and make it just an all out attacker set as well however.

I hope I helped you with this team! This is my first official team rate so yeah! Good luck! =)

 

[IHateBadPlayers]

Hey bud cool team you have here. I have a few points to discuss and how to deal with your threats.

First off, you have said you're weak to Florges, and your option is to pray for 2HKO with Sacred Fire. I think you should run Flare Blitz over Bulldoze on Entei because that allows more raw power and can be used to decimate walls to its fullest.

252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Empoleon: 330-388 (88.7 - 104.3%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 271-319 (75.2 - 88.6%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

With Florges out of the way, I would like to suggest Whimsicott over Mienshao as another backup to deal with Florges, as well as switching into Draco Meteors and pivoting out easily. With Encore you can force a lot of switches as well, and pivot to a wallbreaker to pressure the foe even more. Furthermore, with Entei and Blastoise already in your team, these two Pokemon can create a Fire-Water-Grass core which is an effective core as they can deal with each other's weaknesses. Beware of Fire Blast and Ice Beam however, so therefore you need to predict what they will use and go to either Blastoise or Whimsicott to deal with. With Whimsicott being on your team, the opponent will use Fire Blast more likely and this would create some mind games and you can take them to your advantage. If they're non-choiced, you can just go to Blastoise, see the Life Orb recoil and switch to Whimsicott to tank the Draco Meteor and Encore/KO/U-Turn out of it easily. Having a Whimsicott also lets you check Fighting-types since they're annoying as hell to face with your team as well.

Whimsicott

Whimsicott @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 132 Def / 128 Spe
Timid Nature
- Giga Drain
- Moonblast
- Encore
- U-turn

The Speed EVs are to outspeed Salamence so that you can hit it hard with Moonblast

Thanks for the rate! I did not know Flare Blitz destroyed Florges like that and I will be sure to try out Whismicott too. I like the idea that it forms an FWG core and can function as another pivot.

 

[IHateBadPlayers]

I really like the team! The team concept reminds me of Omfugas Porygon-2 Offense, and about how you build around a really good mon in the tier, that can go offensive or defensive!

I think the whole team concept is really cool, and I think your playstyle is something like Bulky Offense, and I am going to make some suggestions to fit that playstyle better. I see you have many functional cores including Zapdos and Hydreigon and the infamous Mega-Blastoise Nidoqueen core. Those are the mons I am going to suggest you keep, but I have some changes for your team. I most definetly agree with Lord Wallace in that you really do need a draco switch in, as you are very weak to dragon type moves. You also have kind of a fighting weakness, and slurpuff can help with that as well, as well as serving as a partial knock off counter. Slurpuff also synergizes really well on your team, but Lord Wallace explained why well enough =)So I will also suggest Slurpuff > Mienshao.

Slurpuff set

Slurpuff @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 228 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Play Rough
- Drain Punch
- Return

I am also going to suggest another change, as your team still seems weak to dragons, as many carry fairy type coverage including Iron Tail Salamence, Poison Jab Haxorus, and even Flash Cannon Hydreigon, which though not common, can get rid of Slurpuff. And once Slurpuff is gone, they can start dropping dracos and your team will be whittled down. So other than that I am going to reccomend a change for Entei. I am recommending Coballion > Entei Coballion provides some much needed speed on your team, as your entei can be outsped by many things because of the fact it has to run adamant over jolly, which means it is outsped by some of your threats such as Salamence and other base 100's and above. Coballion in my opinion is a perfect fit on your team, as you still need a reliable florges check, and a check to physical walls, and yes bulky steel types. Even though this seems like a Bulky Offensive team, your team is pretty slow, and can be outpaced easily, I feel that Coballion can add some much needed speed, and another dragon resist, brings lots of offensive pressure, and forms a Dragon, Fairy, Steel core with Hydreigon and Slurpuff. It could run leftovers or shuca berry.I have 2 possible sets you could run, but some other changes would be made as well =)

Coballion set(s)

Cobalion @ Shuca Berry or Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat
- Volt Switch
- Iron Head

You could use this set and take the pressure off of nidoqueen to set up all of the hazards. This would allow Nidoqueen to have another coverage move, which would be useful for your team. This also gives more oppourtunities for slurpuff to come in because of volt switch. While both of its stabs hit your counters hard, including Snorlax, Blissey, and especially florges.

OR

Cobalion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge

This set is the more offensive one, that can put lots of offnsive pressure. You could scratch SD and make it just an all out attacker set as well however.

I hope I helped you with this team! This is my first official team rate so yeah! Good luck! =)

Thanks for the rate! I definitely wouldn't have known this was your first rate because you did a really good job explaining why these changes would help me. I am definitely going to try out Shuca Cobalion and as I said to Lord Wallace, I really liked the Slurpuff idea so I will be trying that out too. Also like that I can add more coverage to Nidoqueen because it allows for me to add Ice Beam to Nidoqueen and change Zapdos to HP Grass to not get hard walled by Swampert too because that mon just gets free rocks or set up everytime Zapdos kills something.

 

[LRXC]

Thanks for the rate! I definitely wouldn't have known this was your first rate because you did a really good job explaining why these changes would help me. I am definitely going to try out Shuca Cobalion and as I said to Lord Wallace, I really liked the Slurpuff idea so I will be trying that out too. Also like that I can add more coverage to Nidoqueen because it allows for me to add Ice Beam to Nidoqueen and change Zapdos to HP Grass to not get hard walled by Swampert too because that mon just gets free rocks or set up everytime Zapdos kills something.

Yeah and no problem! Haha thank you for the compliment on my rate! I dont want to use this as advertising or anything but you should check out my RMT Bees and Magnets to maybe get some teambuilding ideas, and also to make your RMT even better, maybe add a teambuilding process thing where it shows your thought process when building as well! Good luck with the team and I really think you can make some really cool teams in the near future! =) IHateBadPlayers

 

[IHateBadPlayers]

Yeah and no problem! Haha thank you for the compliment on my rate! I dont want to use this as advertising or anything but you should check out my RMT Bees and Magnets to maybe get some teambuilding ideas, and also to make your RMT even better, maybe add a teambuilding process thing where it shows your thought process when building as well! Good luck with the team and I really think you can make some really cool teams in the near future! =) IHateBadPlayers

Nah the advertisement is fine I don't mine since it gives a good model of how to build a better RMT. Thanks for the support I definitely plan to make more fun teams like this one and if they are good, even make them into RMTs. Infact, I already have an NU team I'm thinking about posting. By the way I did a few test battles with the changes you suggested and so far they are working out great and I am yet to lose a battle with them! Definitely keep up the good ratings and I hope to see you around on Showdown. Infact, maybe you and I can test teams together my Showdown names are typically IHLP or Random2ndAccount if you ever see me on and have something you want to test.

 

[LRXC]

Nah the advertisement is fine I don't mine since it gives a good model of how to build a better RMT. Thanks for the support I definitely plan to make more fun teams like this one and if they are good, even make them into RMTs. Infact, I already have an NU team I'm thinking about posting. By the way I did a few test battles with the changes you suggested and so far they are working out great and I am yet to lose a battle with them! Definitely keep up the good ratings and I hope to see you around on Showdown. Infact, maybe you and I can test teams together my Showdown names are typically IHLP or Random2ndAccount if you ever see me on and have something you want to test.

Awesome! I am glad that they have worked! And yeah we should definetly test some teams together on Showdown, I am very active in the UU chat room, so you can usually see me there, and my PS name is my smogon account name... LittleRunnerXC =) IHateBadPlayers